"Get up, man!" cried the station master, standing over him with a lantern, "God kens how many lives ye hae lost through your ill deeds!"
Dazed and bewildered, James Cannon arose to the damning fact that the boat train was past, and he knew well that he had never altered the signals or set the points.
Five minutes later Duncan Urquhart found Muckle Alick. He was lying half on and half over the embankment of the cattle shipping bank, where the express had tossed him like a feather.
"Oh, what's wrang, what's wrang, Alick?" cried Duncan Urquhart in terror.
"It's a' richt, Duncan," said Muckle Alick, slowly but very distinctly. "I gripped the points and held them till ye won by!"
"Can ye bide a minute, Alick?" said Duncan tenderly.
"Ow, aye," said the wounded man, "dinna fash yoursel'. There's nae hurry—Mirren wasna' expectin' me!"
Faster far than his own train had passed the points, Duncan Urquhart sped back to the station.
"Alick's lying killed doon on the cattle bank!" he cried. "Help us wi' that board!"